Road A-Peel: Upside-Down Car Clings to Curling Street

An upside-down, cherry-red car clings improbably to a slice of a concrete parking lot as it curls up over itself in this gravity-defying installation by British artist Alex Chinneck. Hanging in mid-air with no visible supports, ‘Pick yourself up and pull yourself together’ is a collaboration with Vauxhall Motors located just outside London’s Southbank Centre.

About 50 feet of the parking lot surface appears to have been peeled right up, with the vehicle hanging from its uppermost curve within sight of one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, the London Eye. Hidden sections of steel designed by structural engineers hold the car in place.

“I see sculpture as the physical reinterpretation of the material world around us and so by introducing fictional narratives into familiar scenarios, I try to make everyday situations as extraordinary as they can be,” says Chinneck. “I choose to do this through illusions because I think there is something both optimistic and captivating about defying the realms of possibility.”

“With an effortlessly curling road I hoped to transcend the material nature of tarmac and stone, giving these typically inflexible materials an apparent fluidity. Vauxhall Motors allowed me a great amount of creative freedom and this collaboration offered my studio an exciting platform to explore new areas of engineering and fabrication.”